give me a daisy

celebrating coffee and coffee shops

How did people get by before they figured out…coffee! And how did our species advance before we created coffee shops? I have at least two or three coffee shop get togethers (social or work-related) every week. (And now I want to publicly apologize to Lorena for spacing out our coffee date last week. Not that it’s an excuse, but by the time I got to the end of the week I was surprised I’d actually made it. Of course, I probably wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for coffee.)

In Albuquerque we have Starbucks conveniently located in every corner of every quadrant of the city, so that’s always a popular choice. They have good coffee, but their baristas have an unfortunate tendency to creatively interpret your order.

Flying Star is another popular choice with locations all over the city. Indeed, their slogan is “You’re never far from a Flying Star.” Strictly speaking, Flying Star is a restaurant, and Satellite Coffee is their coffee-shop brand. I have two Flying Stars and one Satellite within 5-15 minutes of my home. There are more Flying Stars than Satellites, but they know coffee (Satellite’s slogan is “passionate about coffee”), so it’s reliably good at both places.

Napoli is a one-off coffee shop that is farther away, so I don’t get there very often. They recently moved into a new space that I really like. If they were closer, I’d make it my go-to spot. Obviously their coffee is excellent.

As is the home-brew that I’m drinking as I write this post.

I also want to give an honorable mention to Java Joe’s. I’ve never actually been to their physical location, but they have a stand at the downtown growers market which I used to frequent on Saturday mornings. That was years ago, but I still remember how wonderful their coffee was. It almost made getting up in the middle of the night (or so 5:00am feels to me) worth it. And the fresh-baked scones were pretty amazing, too.

There are lots of other coffee joints in Albuquerque, some of which may be superior to the ones I patronize. So in order to fully celebrate coffee—and coffee shops—I’m now making a point of systematically checking them out. I see a lot more coffee in my future, and that means a lot more to celebrate.

How do you feel about coffee and coffee shops? Do you have a favorite coffee shop hangout?

This post is part of April’s 30 Days of Celebration. To read more, click on the Celebration category link.